Labor Day Baja Trip to Punta Cabra with CON KSO, Motos, Chicks, Surf and Rum

[con kso]

Just got back from a great trip down to Punta Cabra in Northern Baja with our work-in-progress offroad(ish) camper that we've named CON KSO. I've been going to Baja since I was a kid in the late 70's with my Uncle in an old Split Window VW camper- Baja dirt and dust permeates my soul. My girlfriend Liza is fairly new to Baja travel but she's a trooper, surfs and rides dirtbikes like me so it's only natural we get south as often as possible. Here's a few pictures from our first shake-down trip with our rig, CON KSO which is a 2007, 4x4 longbed Tundra with a few suspension modifications and a small Callen camper. Alright, off to the photos. Let's start at the beginning:



Liza and I attended the San Diego meetup at Fiesta Island and met a bunch of local Expo folks- all super cool and with rigs that pegged the stoke meter. We were inspired by all the prepping and modifying that had been done to make travel a little easier. We also walked away with a much needed item, something I'd been wanting to pick up- a new stove. This one came from EXPOMike and it's exactly what we needed- the ability to both grill hotdogs and warm the chili that we'd put on them. Mike had pre-modded it with nifty little magnetic legs and he gave me a price I couldn't walk away from- Liza and I considered it a divine sign that this happened right before our trip- we had a feeling that great Baja meals would soon follow.



Thanks Mike! Having some Baja experience I knew what I wanted in my deep Baja cruiser (I drive to southern Baja for three weeks every winter): It needed to have 4x4- not so much for technical stuff, just for getting over sand beaches and across easy loose rock. I also wanted to be able to quickly and easily be out of the gnarly Baja wind and dust, I wanted a place to sleep at any moment (not having to pull things out or set bins outside to access the bed) because sometimes you've got to just pull over behind a rock off the highway and get a couple hours of sleep before charging on, I needed instant shade and few creature comforts to keep my better half happy. More on those creature comforts later but for now here's a shot of our new best Baja buddy... CON KSO:



Have you figured out our handle yet? Hint: Just when you thought it couldn't get any better... ask for it CON KSO!



I'm fortunate to be able to ride my bike to work everyday ($100 Walmart beach cruiser, 2 minute bike ride... I ain't no bike snob) so CON KSO is a dedicated Baja Rambler- we just keep her parked and ready for southern surf strikes. We've also been adding to her features - BUT I'll have to tell you about that later because now... I've got to head off to the coal mine. Talk more soon.

 

[jerdog53]

In!

 

[con kso]

I know this is a trip report so I hope you'll forgive me for a couple paragraphs while I express my strange attachment to my past vehicles- I promise more pics to come; but first...

A little truck history: CON KSO is my third vehicle. First there was the longbed, regular cab, 2wd T-100 that I bought brand new off the lot for $10,600 (no bumper, no a/c, vinyl seats) back in '95. That was a great Baja runner, she made the trip all the way to the tip at least eight times- returning fuel mileage in the low to mid-20s if I remember correctly. I hammered that truck, once we hitched up a 50's era, "I love Lucy", canned ham style trailer and hauled it all the way to my property in Todos Santos. I knew nothing about towing back then- we just repacked the hubs on that trailer, hooked it to the ball that we bolted to the bumper and pulled it 1100 miles down the Baja highway.That truck never complained. Amazing what that T100 four cylinder was capable of doing. My pops ended up buying the T100 off of me and it's still running around town even today with close to 300k miles on it. Next came the F250, 4x4, crew cab longbed, 7.3 diesel- a true beast if there ever was one. I only held onto this truck for about three years- it was a sweet ride but truthfully, even with big BFGs on it, it didn't do well on the sand- plus, it let me down a couple times. Once the starter cooked off right on Pismo beach and the loosey, goosey front end was a little too loosey goosey for me. The truck did have an awesome front cab and I liked starting it, it was like kicking off a Panzer division in the early morning. Ultimately though, it was too much truck for what I needed and I sold it for pretty much even money to a local friend (it ended up getting stolen three weeks later- evidently the human smugglers down here in SD look out for those particular trucks and they are stolen often around these parts).

Which brings me in a very round about way to CON KSO. So far, this one is in a neck and neck tie with the T100. I mentioned before, she's got all the right dimensions: long bed, double cab, v8, 4x4- these items are her strong points. Weak points? Jeez, who designed the dash? It's horrible. Unless it's rum induced, tunnel vision sucks- and that's what you get every time you look at the dash on this thing. Finally, I do wish I could have her in a 3/4 or 1 ton suspension. And it's with this that the mods begin. The first thing I did was swap out the shocks for some heavier duty Bilsteins, then I added ride-rite air bags. Those two things really transformed the beast. Don't get me wrong, I know I haven't increased her payload capacity but it sure helped with the ride quality. Especially after I scored this:



That's our Callen camper that we picked up for $500. It was amazing to find a Callen in such good shape, for that price, that was made for a long bed Tundra. Granted, it came off of a Tundra of the old body type which meant I'd have to find a way to close up the six inch gap under the back of the shell- but hey, that just makes it custom, right? Liza and I jammed up to LA and picked up the camper. The only thing to next was to load it up with beer, ice, boards, bikes and babes (well maybe just one babe) and break her in. And so we did. We decided to join my friend Kiwi and his family for a quick 3 day run out to Punta Cabra in Northern Baja. Here's what our first day looked like:



That's Liza up on CON KSO's Aloha deck. I picked up the fully galvanized top rack from a local guy for a couple hundred bucks (score). Like the shell, it didn't quite fit. To solve that problem, I had some 2x4 steel welded up with attachment tabs, figured out how to get them galvanized and bolted the whole thing to the top of the old girl. I helped weld up a ladder got it powdercoated and got that bolted on too. The Aloha deck is where it's at- you're up out of the dirt, you've got a great view and drinking cocktails is always more fun when there's a certain element of danger.

What you can't see is how breezy it all was- Punta Cabra is pretty exposed so it can get really dirty and dusty when the wind is up. It's a really pretty beach, but don't look too closely in the dunes or bushes. Decades of campers have been fertilizing those little hidey spots and have left behind their toilet paper which ends up hanging in the bushes and fluttering in the wind. We used a different waste management system that was much more environmentally friendly, I could tell you about it if you're interested, you'll have to let me know.



Punta Cabra overview with Aloha Deck open for business.



Looking south. In the past I've camped at the south end of the beach. This time, however, we were tagging along with friends who liked the north end. The surf was better on this side and there's the added benefit of a pass in the dunes that allows you to drive right down onto the sand. If you drive down onto the beach you can head even further north and camp on the sand below the cliffs that frame the beach. Next time, we'll drive down and camp on the sand. Being on the sand looks like a much more pleasant place to camp - not as much broken glass and trash and you're more protected from the wind.



Cooking dinner at the end of Day 1- there's always a dog in Baja ready to help you out with leftovers.

We ended Day 1 by hanging out drinking rum and planning for the moto ride we wanted to do the next day. The drive isn't really too bad for us since we live in South San Diego but we were definitely ready for bed after cooking up a nice steak and roasting a couple marshmallows. I was looking forward to CON KSO's queen sized gooey foam mattress and was happy to have a solid wall between us, the wind and the swirling sand.

 

[Waltzing Matilda]

Callen owners club...

Thanks for your trip report! I'm a fellow Baja and Callen fan, so really enjoyed your post.

Not sure such a club exists (yet), but I'd love to start one! Sorry I missed the Fiesta Island meeting- when was it? (I live only a few miles away.) Were there many other Callens?

Last year I bought a small used Callen, for my Mazda B4000 (basically a Ranger) to take to Baja for camping, whalewatching, kayaking etc. After bouncing around in VW vans, and trucks w/Leer fiberglass shells that leaked dust and cracked under duress, I have found the Callens to be bombproof! Very sad that they went out of Business.

I have put over 5K miles on my truck in Baja in the last 18 mos (otherwise it sits out front of the house) and the Callen has been a great retreat from cold/windy days in winter/spring, tho a bit warm in the baja Sur heat this summer. I have a small truck, w/a 6' bed, but the Callen has a 2 foot overcab shelf so I can squeeze an 8' kayak inside.

Where did you find the rack? I'd love to get one, for a viewing deck and to carry things that don't belong inside (gas cans...) but I also like to keep low key when travelling. (I usually don't put toys in full view outside the camper to reduce wind-drag, and not tempt fate and/or thieves.)

Thanks again for the post. Do you plan to head south for whalewatching? If so- let me know. I've gone solo the last year, but would welcome a chance to caravan with others.

(Watering horses near Cataviña, Baja California)

 

[Waltzing Matilda]

PS: do you like chili CON KSO?

 

[con kso]

Ha! Yes love it! Your Callen looks like mine- I'm with you on the low pro mode- we keep our boards inside just to keep it all streamlined. I haven't been to the whales yet- I did swim with a whale shark in La Ventana but I'm dying to get over to the Lagoons to see the real show. I'm a high school teacher so I have breaks pretty frequently- I think my spring break may be too late but possibly this year I might be able to get down there to see them. I'm heading down for three weeks this winter for sure- I'm haunted by a couple of waves I found down there so I've got to scratch that itch. We gotta get together and compare campers sometime.

 

[Waltzing Matilda]

I teach also- spring recess is usually good for whales.

This spring was one of best years ever for calves in the lagoons. Hundreds in San Ignacio and Guerrero Negro.

 

[con kso]

That's great we're up for it! We'll have to stay in touch, I'll PM you my email or contact me here. Thanks for the hot tip.

 

[con kso]

Day 2: Moto Ride out to Punta San Jose, Rum, sun and fun

We woke up bright and early- I've got a queen sized memory foam mattress in CON KSO that's super comfy with plenty of room for both of us. I always sleep great back there. Of course we fired up a semi-healthy sausage, potato, peppers, onions and egg breakfast:



The stove we bought from expoMike has grates for grilling and a burner for heating things up. We found that putting our big skillet directly over the grate worked well enough and we cooked all this stuff up fairly quickly. I had been considering one of those super cool Partner Stoves (partially because I love the way the box is welded up on those things- it looks like the type of stove you keep forever) but I just didn't want to also have to lug around a gas grill too.

After breakfast, our buddy Kiwi went out for a paddlesurf:



Liza, Kiwi and myself are big into stand up paddlesurfing- we started surfing them at our home breaks back in 2007 after I hauled one all the way back from Santa Barbara (the only place to buy production standos at the time)- we're long, long time surfers but since '07 we've been hooked on surfing stando. Baja is perfect for it because there are so many wide open breaks to paddle out to- far from other surfers. Here's Kiwi heading out the back, no wetsuit since the water was really warm. Actually it's been a crazy warm summer here in San Diego, Cabras is known for its year 'round icy water... not this year. I didn't surf because, frankly, I'm a wave snob and unless it's looking pretty good I'll do other things. Like fire up one of my motos- and today that was going to be the call.



We usually travel with our dirtbikes behind CON KSO. Here's Liza with our three rail moto trailer. Liza rides that CRF250L and I'm on the yellow DRZ400s. We like our bikes to be plated so that in the winter we can camp in Anza Borrego State Park where quads are not allowed and still ride the roads and trails out there. Not that we hate all quads- we just tend to greatly dislike the dudes who like to spin donuts right in front of your camp, completely dusting you out (until I huck a rock into the middle of the donut-fest). We just have seemed to notice that there is a direct correlation between donut-dusters and quad riders. If you don't spin dust donuts AND you're a quad rider, we've got no problem with you whatsoever.

Okay- now that I got that out of my system, I have to say that Liza and I are more of the sightseeing trail riding variety than of the high performance, go fast and pound the whoops type. We like to get out in the open air, cruise around and see things. We were so stoked to have the motos along with us because they're perfect for Baja exploring. You can zip right over washboarded roads, snake your way through rock fields and cruise across open sand beaches. If you aren't a moto rider, you might want to reconsider it- it's super fun and huge part of the Baja attraction for us is being able to ride them anywhere. It's magic.



While Kiwi was out surfing, Liza and I got into our gear and took off along the north road towards the surf spot Punta San Jose. Just over the road there's a pretty little beach that would be a great, and much cleaner, alternative to camping at Punta Cabra. Here's Liza at the overlook to the little bay. It was really pretty and there was a road that you could drive down onto the sand. I rode down onto the sand and zipped up and down the beach a couple of times.



About twenty or so miles up the road you come to Punta San Jose. Here I am having a look. I've been out here many time surfing- I don't care what anyone says, this is a south swell spot. I've been out there with guys who swear a NW swell will get in there but I don't believe it. Look it up on google earth- that point faces almost straight to the south which means that the prevailing north winds are almost straight offshore. When we rolled up there were only three other vehicles there... and more girls than I've ever seen out at the point. I don't know what was going on but there had to be at least five girls either laying out in bikinis, in wetsuits or hanging out at their tents. It was weird. The surf was small but looked longboardable, or if you were me, stand up paddleable. In fact, it probably would've been super fun on a bigger board. You'd just been floundering and fooling yourself if you tried to surf it at high tide with a short board... but who am I to tell you how to have fun? Go for it, bro.



Punta San Jose, small and clean and just a little bit offshore.



Here's Liza contemplating the ever-after as she sits about ten feet from a vertical 200 foot drop. This was actually a pretty scary moment. From the flat camping area, there's a beat up old road that isn't used much anymore. Above the old road is the new road that is the best way to the lighthouse on the point. As we blazed out of the camping area, I took the wrong road. I knew from previous experience that there were some serious whoops and deep holes in the road so I threaded the needle around the obstacles as I powered up to them. Liza, on the other hand, was blinded by my dust and didn't see the holes until she was right into them. I took a quick glance back and she was handling it like a champ but apparently the very next second she cased it into one of the holes. Her suspension compressed and rebounded which pogo sticked her right off the road. What you can't see is that from where her bike is lying on its side, the ground is falling away toward a very abrupt drop off. Take a look past her at the cars in the background and the cliff in front of them, now add another hundred feet to that cliff and you'd be at our elevation. Luckily, as her bike went over the berm and towards the edge, it bottomed out on the dirt berm and fell over. If she had lost her grip and gone all whiskey throttle she might have gone over the side. The outcome of that fall would have been terminal. I was able to right her bike but I had to start it and walk it out of there (which was actually pretty sketchy too) because the angle of the drop off and the berm were too big for us to pull the bike over and I was too scared to ride it out that close to the edge. Scary stuff and a reminder that it's only fun until your dead, so take it easy out there folks.



We hung out for a bit, took a minute to calm our nerves and then cruised back home. The road back is real easy riding but you do have to watch out for the wanna be Baja 1000 drivers out there- take it slow and easy and stay wide on the blind curves. Also don't expect any trail etiquette (hand signals to tell you how many more are coming up behind you, slowing down for passes, etc) out on the roads, the wanna be race drives basically have no idea what is going on and were probably pounding Tecates the whole way out to the point anyways. Once we got back to camp, Liza went straight to the Aloha deck and I mixed her up one of these...



This is our go to cocktail, Kraken Rum and 7 Up. Yeah, yeah I know there's better rum out there but this stuff is pretty darn good. And it will kick your *** if you're not careful. We call this drink Kraken Up. Give it a try.



While we're on the subject of drinking, here's my second favorite mod: My bottle opener with rare earth bottle cap catcher. This thing is fun to have around- so far it's captured 14 consecutive bottle caps, I have no idea of its carrying capacity but when you're buzzed in Baja it makes every beer opening a social event when everyone rushes over to see it in action.

For Day 3, more sun, moto, surfing.. and weird Euro chicks on the Gus Bus.

PS: I won't be able to make the Day 3 post because I'm taking off tomorrow morning back down to Baja to try to catch this new south swell. I'll get it loaded up when I return. Talk more soon.

 

[con kso]

Day 3: Things Get Weird... the GUS BUS

Alright, time to wrap up this Adventure Report (although I did use 4x4 twice during the trip so does it qualify as an "overland trip"?).

Day 3 came up on us as another beautiful, sunny almost windless day.



We fired up the stove, scrambled up some eggs and powered down some coffee. Today the plan was to ride down the coast and check out the Malibu Sur RV park. I'd read about it and wanted to scout it out for a possible future trip.



We jammed up the dirty, dusty road past Coyote Cal's (met some college kids staying there- $25/night and they make breakfast for you, sounds like a good deal AND it's owned by an Imperial Beach guy and even weirder- I was his step-son's chem teacher), checked out what looked like some abalone aquaculture pens and busted up through Erindira. There's pretty much nothing to see in Erindira, I didn't even spy a legit taco stand. Baja Malibu Sur was pretty creepy, it was like out of a scene of Mad Max or the Hills Have Eyes- rundown, broken, dirty dusty but seemingly inhabited. Except you couldn't see a living soul- you just kind of felt their presence. Creepy. We swung it around and jammed back to camp where I had a bit more fun doing this...



That's me doing what you almost cannot do anywhere in California (except Pismo beach). I promise you, no Snowy Plovers, least Terns or turtle nesting sites were disturbed by me zipping up and down the empty beach. Baja is freedom, and there's fun to be had if you know where to find it.



Here's the guys in the campsite next to us. They'd drive a bunch of balls into the open paddock and then walk out with their ball grabbing gizmo in one hand, a cold Tecate in the other and repeat the whole process. Fun. Eventually it got weird when this thing showed up out of nowhere:



It's called the "Gus Bus" and as far as I could tell, it was full of foreign travelers drinking beers, lighting off fireworks and acting crazy. Here's another shot:



Interesting fashion choices too:



Are those Dolphin Shorts (remember those?)?

The girls of the Gus Bus were pretty lively and fun loving. If I was a dirt caked, Baja surf bum on a three week guys trip, I'm sure the bus would've looked like a mirage from heaven. Those hippy travel girls were pounding beers and having fun. Good on 'em as they say down under. Gus Bus scenery:



We spent the rest of the day predictably drinking rum and grilling up good eats. Liza went out on a limb and put together some cored Granny Smith apples filled with cinnamon and brown sugar. We roasted them in the fire and ate them after they'd cooled- pretty tasty- here there are:



The trip was awesome in all ways- we planned it as a bit of shake down cruise for our new camper but it turned out to be a bit of everything; surfing, moto and Gus Bus creature viewing. We checked out early planning on getting up with the sun and jamming for Tecate to fight our way across the border.



Our drive home was uneventful, no mordita, no close calls on the highway. You can see, however, that the border line was substantial. That's a solid two hour wait at the Tecate crossing- not bad considering it was four to five hours at Otay Mesa.

We arrived home rested and stoked, most of all, we came home ready to resupply and do it all again.

 

[Abeer]

Great report! How was the swell on your most recent short trip? Im planning on heading down to Punta San Jose this Thursday to try to catch some it and then maybe shipwrecks. If you wouldn't mind, could you PM the location of where you guys camped in your first post? I'm not familiar with punta cabra but think that could be a fun stop too.

 

[con kso]

Greetings Abeer (great handle by the way)!

The spot we were camped at in that first post is Punta Cabra.

If you're going to Punta San Jose, Punta Cabra is south of it. If you're on the road to Punta San Jose out of Santo Tomas just keep heading toward the coast until you see a tire on the south side of the road (it would be out your driver's side window) painted red at the intersection of a well traveled dirt road heading south. Follow that road ten miles and you'll come out above Punta Cabra's north end.

I've been there a few times and I've found that the surf is best at that north end- there's a dry arroyo, they call it the rivermouth, that seems to have good peaks too.

Really, the whole place doesn't ever get that good. And the dunes, rivermouth and especially the cave on the beach at the far north end are pretty disgusting. Don't look too closely under the bushes and in any natural break in the land- you'll probably see some nastiness- and remember some things cannot be unseen. The surf is better at San Jose and there's a new outhouse there that looked much more sanitary than the old one (there was space between the floor of the out house and the long drop and sometimes the howling wind would blow your TP back up against your a##).

That being said, it's not a bad place to camp and goof around on the beach for a day or two. There's a natural ramp down onto the sand beach at the north end, if you've got 4x4 I'd recommend driving down onto the beach and heading a bit further north and just camp under the cliffs (but not too close- they look fairly unstable). Again, do yourself a favor and DO NOT look in the cave at the far north end. Yeck.

This last trip, I should've sucked it up and just hammered it all the way to Punta San Jose. The surf was FIRING and the angle on it was so south that Punta San Jose would've been perfect. To make matters even worse, we were there on Friday and there was nobody around- I'm betting San Jose would've been empty... and going off. Liza and I considered it but it's another two to two and half hours up the road and since we were just there, we didn't feel like driving all the way back.

Of course, I'm now wishing I would've just gone for it. Oh well- there's always going to be another big south, right?

 

[Abeer]

Of course, I'm now wishing I would've just gone for it. Oh well- there's always going to be another big south, right?

Looks like the swell is holding up through the end of this week. Hopefully I'll catch some of it on Friday. Thanks for the info on Punta Cabra and nice rig too!

 

[con kso]

Oh yeah- one more tip though I'm sure you've already got your border crossing technique worked out. I don't have Sentri like all my friends in town so I always cross at Tecate. If you hit Tecate early, like say 7am, the line to the border might be very short- I prefer crossing at Tecate because it's not as much of a circus as Otay, or God help you, San Ysidro. This last time we crossed at Tecate from Blvd. 2000 (that's a great Tijuana bypass but don't drive it at night) and it only took us 20 mins in line- we even had to go through secondary and it was still not a hassle (BTW don't bring any uncooked eggs or lunchmeat from Mex to US- they will be seized and you could be fined up to $500!!!!).

Good luck, drive safe and drink rum.

John and Liza

 

[pmatusov]

Oh yeah- one more tip though I'm sure you've already got your border crossing technique worked out. I don't have Sentri like all my friends in town so I always cross at Tecate. If you hit Tecate early, like say 7am, the line to the border might be very short- I prefer crossing at Tecate because it's not as much of a circus as Otay, or God help you, San Ysidro. This last time we crossed at Tecate from Blvd. 2000 (that's a great Tijuana bypass but don't drive it at night) and it only took us 20 mins in line- we even had to go through secondary and it was still not a hassle (BTW don't bring any uncooked eggs or lunchmeat from Mex to US- they will be seized and you could be fined up to $500!!!!).

Good luck, drive safe and drink rum.

John and Liza

It is worth mentioning that, if you're headed towards San Diego, a secondary checkpoint on Hwy 94 can be much longer than border crossing in Tecate.